What is the importance of progesterone in postmenopausal women?
The postmenopausal period is the stage in a woman's life from the time her menstrual periods have completely stopped for 12 months or more.
Two of the primary hormones that actively work hand in hand in a healthy woman's body are estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen production drops to 40 or 60 percent in a postmenopausal woman's body as compared to the levels she had before she actually went into menopause. Progesterone levels, at the same time, drop to almost zero, since there is no longer any ovulation that stimulates progesterone production. After the body's progesterone declines to this "zero" level, the postmenopausal woman can be confronted by a number of unwanted and unhealthy symptoms.
Postmenopausal women are at higher risk for urinary incontinence, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, thinning hair, wrinkles, and even breast cancer. Practically all of these postmenopausal symptoms, as well as others, are directly related to the condition called "estrogen dominance" caused of the continued existence of estrogen and the absence of progesterone.
Estrogen dominance occurs when you have either higher levels of estrogen than normal or just higher levels of estrogen as compared to progesterone levels. Estrogen dominance can lead to symptoms as minor as allergies and as major as uterine cancer. When both hormones - estrogen and progesterone - are balanced, you are more energetic, optimistic, and disease free: you have balance! The hormones estrogen and progesterone naturally complement each other. Progesterone is actually essential in the regulation of estrogen, testosterone, aldosterone and cortisone.
If you are postmenopausal, natural progesterone supplementation is what you should be having yourself treated with as soon as possible. Estrogen dominance can be lethal.
The easiest applicable and most effective form of natural progesterone supplementation is natural bioidentical progesterone cream. Natural progesterone cream is a "bio-identical" product, which means it's identical to the progesterone our own bodies make.
Because bioidentical progesterone creams are bioidentical, they can be used by your body as nature intended with no negative side-effects. Synthetic hormones can never achieve this biological harmony and so inevitably produce intolerable side effects such as heart disease, and breatt and uterine cancer.
Using bioidentical progesterone cream can help you absorb progesterone better than taking pills. When progesterone is taken orally, it is almost completely broken down by the digestive process because it passes through the liver before it is able to enter the bloodstream, reducing its effectiveness dramatically. For oral progesterone to be effective the dosages have to be stronger; which is why it is that dosages required for oral progesterone are necessarily around five to seven times higher than for progesterone creams.
Some people do not suffer from severe postmenopausal symptoms - others do. This is probably due to our different eating habits, stress levels, medical histories and more. We each react differently to different postmenopausal treatments. However, it is important that our overall health is good, so we should consider adding regular exercise to our daily routine, which can help the hormonal functioning of our bodies.
Postmenopausal symptoms due to low progesterone levels are more than simply annoying – they can kill. If you experience these problems, you might want to check the link below that describes in detail the symptoms of low progesterone that most probably apply to people at our postmenopausal age.
Click here to read about the symptoms of PMS